The United Nations Security Council said; “it welcomes the announcement of Laurent Nkunda of an immediate ceasefire and looks to Lauent Nkunda to ensure its effective and durable implementation,” the Council said in a presidential statement issued late Wednesday night. Fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between government troops and forces loyal to Nkunda has displaced tens of thousands and undermined hopes of implementing a peace agreement signed in Nairobi last year. Nkunda called the ceasefire as his troops advanced toward the city of Goma, in eastern DRC near the Rwandan border. The U.N. has just 850 peacekeepers patrolling this city, said Kevin Kennedy, a spokesperson for the U.N.'s peacekeeping mission in DRC. The U.N. has sent envoys to Rwanda and DRC but stressed that while it believes Rwanda is a major player in the region it also believes Rwanda is being transparent when it says it has not backed Nkunda's forces, Kennedy said Nkunda says he is protecting the Tutsi minority population in eastern Congo, most of whom fled there during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The Security Council statement also called on the DRC's government to take measures to ensure there is no cooperation between government troops and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a mainly Hutu militia group.
